Mansfield, Mass. - On Wednesday, the Adelphi University baseball team learned that it had a pair of headliners on the 2022 NE10 All-Conference Team.
Matt Alifano followed up last season's Southwest Division Rookie Hitter of the Year honor with an NE10 Southwest Division Player of the Year nod in 2022. Meanwhile,
John Rizzo was named the NE10 Southwest Division Rookie Pitcher of the Year.
Alifano appears well on his way to another All-America citation, after finishing as the NE10's regular-season batting champ. In addition to hitting .411, the Adelphi lead-off slugger reached base at a conference-best .518 clip and totaled a league-leading 18 doubles in the process.
The reigning NCBWA All-America Honorable Mention went just nine appearances without a hit. He ranked second among the NE10's leaders in runs scored (54) and slugging percentage (.735), and third in hits (62) and total bases (111).
Rizzo worked quickly and efficiently in his first season on the mound. He won each of his last five decisions to conclude the regular season and Rizzo's seven victories led all true freshmen in the conference.
A righty hurler who grew into a lead role in the Adelphi rotation, Rizzo struck out a team-high 54 batters and walked only eight. His headlining performance was a 15-strikeout outing at Assumption on Apr. 23.
Alifano was selected to the NE10 All-Conference First Team, while Rizzo earned NE10 Third Team All-Conference and All-Rookie Team accolades.
Fellow NE10 batting leaders
Michael Draskin and
Kyle Olson were NE10 First Team and Second Team All-Conference performers, respectively.
Draskin, a two-time NE10 Player of the Week, slugged more home runs than any Adelphi player in over a decade. His 10 homers tied Bill Melillo's most-recent high watermark in 2007, which included a three-homer game on Apr. 15 against New Haven.
Draskin's .407 average and 17 doubles only trailed Alifano for the NE10 lead in both categories. Additionally, the junior possessed a league-high .807 slugging percentage -- finishing exactly 70 points better than the competition in the regular season.
At one point, Olson was the NCAA Division II national leader in batting average. The lefty bat still swung the stick at .390 with four homers and 31 RBIs. Fourteen of those RBIs came with two outs, which rank second on the team.
Olson has also found a steady home in the outfield, where he has produced an outstanding .986 fielding percentage splitting time between left and right field.
Jack Wishner burst onto the scene as the team's starting shortstop in his freshman year. The NE10 All-Rookie Team selection consistently turned the line-up over with a .348 average (.380 with two outs) and .390 on-base percentage -- mainly out of the No. 9 hole.
He strung together a four-hit game against AIC on Mar. 25 and recorded eighteen multi-hit games for the season. Additionally, Wishner drove in 15 RBIs with his bat and successfully stole a base on all eight of his attempts.
